Repulse: New Worlds
by xzaxza
Summary: The first adventure of the Repulse and her crew in three acts. The first world they come across in the new sector has some surprises, but several crew are in trouble, and one lone Horta is their only chance - but will he survive. Rated T for non-standard relationships. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

_**July 2298**_

"Captain's Log, Stardate 11126.5. Six weeks after leaving dock, the _Repulse_ has arrived at the boarder of Sector 227 to begin our mission of cataloging planets for mining or colonization and to locate any inhabitants of the area. The crew has been kept alert by not only the efforts of my Exec and Tactical Officer through drills but also the relaxed atmosphere engendered through the casual interaction I encouraged from the beginning. Crew efficiencies are maintaining a constant four point five across the board and all department heads are satisfied that we're ready to face whatever the universe might toss our way."

"On a personal note, in the four weeks since being taken under Vaire's wing, Dr Travis has shown major improvement in his relations with the non-Terran members of the crew. He's more relaxed and seems actually willing to interact, going so far as to be seen with various crew members at tables in the Irish Star Pub. I'm confident that given time, the remains of the humano-centric tendencies that he grew up with will fade."

I end the morning's log entry and glance at the navigation chart on my command-chair's primary screen. We'll encounter the first system in about an hour and I look at the ship's status on my secondary screen. Tactical is at condition two, not quite a Yellow-Alert, but at a slightly higher state of readiness than cruise mode. Science is fully manned, with additional power being allocated to scanner and sensor systems.

I look at my navigator, here's where his training will really come into play, as he will be responsible for plotting orbital paths of the planets, placement and vectors of stray items like comets and asteroids, and guiding us in on a spiral path that will give the sensor systems maximum contact with planets and other objects for detailed analysis.

He appears calm and relaxed, but I've spent enough time around Caitians to know that he's about as wound up as an old fashioned clock, as the tip of his tail is twitching erratically. His fingers are deft and sure, though, as he configures his panel into system survey mode and prepares to record and calculate orbital elements.

Over at the science station, M'Rael is in about the same shape, her tail swishing as she prepares to collate the information that will be coming in from the various departments under her purview. Prior to this mission, she'd been number two in science, but when I tapped Vaire for my exec we'd both agreed that M'Rael was ready to become department head. So far she'd been doing fine, but now is when she'll prove if we were right.

Zan is still running through various frequencies, both modern and old fashioned as she searches for any intelligent communications from the system ahead. Meanwhile, Lt Ker'shall, the first-shift tactical officer is preparing for the worst, making sure the defense systems are ready to activate at a moment's notice if any hostile action is noticed.

I review what data we have from _Ticonderoga_, and it's surprisingly little. K-5 star, about 2 billion years older than Sol. Six planets of which one is in the habitable zone, and a fairly sparse Oort Cloud beyond a Neptune sized gas-giant.

'Well', I think to myself, 'that's why we're here, to see if there's anything worthwhile.'

As we approach, both M'Rael and T'Chral become very busy. He's taking data from the scanners and firming up orbital vectors while she's observing the different information come in from the various departments and turning it into a cohesive whole. I watch on my personal screen as things start filling in. The gas-giant is in an eccentric orbit, T'Chral has already noted that in less than five-thousand years it'll approach the fifth planet close enough for tidal effects to knock that one out of orbit into a death spiral to it's star.

Planetology has already shown that the giant itself is mostly methane hovering around minus 30c and the other planet is a rock, low density means little in the way of recoverable minerals.

Over the next couple hours, we spiral in, passing the fourth planet which is another rock. Seems this system might have formed out of a gas cloud low in heavier elements.

Planet three, however, is where things get interesting.

Seems that at one time there might have been liquid water there. Calcium-carbonate formations dot the surface, showing a possible sea-based ecosystem that formed limestone deposits much like Earth corals have done for eons. The atmosphere is very thin now, more so than even out-gassing can account for and M'Rael and her people are working to try and figure it out.

By this time, six hours after we entered the system, Vaire comes up to relieve me and I head back to our quarters for an evening of reading with Kia.

I wake to alarms blaring. Vaire and Kia also wake up and I roll over and hit the com-switch. "Bridge, O'Connor here, what's going on."

Sord answers, "Coronal Mass Ejection, Captain. Initial trajectory put it heading towards us. Auto-defense system activated upon scanner register. However, Ensign Macht has calculated its course at fifteen degrees above the ecliptic. Closest approach will be twenty-eight million kilometers. No danger to the ship at this time."

I had been about to jump into my uniform and head to the bridge, but Sord's words put me at ease again. My ship is safe for now, "Very well, Sord, maintain orbit then." I glance at the chrono, "I'll be there in three hours."

"Aye sir."

I tap off the com and half roll back, the gals had also partially sat up and Vaire looks at me, "I would like to look at the data on that. If a CME of large enough proportions impacted the planet, it could explain the unusually thin atmosphere on what should still be a Class-M world."

Kia, her head resting on her wife's shoulder adds, "It could also have sterilized the planet. There might have been a thriving ecosystem down there. If possible, we should collect samples as they could tell us how extensive life was before what ever happened killed the planet, if that is what happened."

"And give us an approximate time of death as well," Vaire says.

I look at my wives, both still true to their training, wanting to know more. "Alright, in the morning I'll authorize a landing party to collect samples." They both smile at me, "But only one of you goes, so decide between you which one it is." They both start pouting, Kia showing it in her face, Vaire by the set of her antenna and the look in her eyes. "I'm not having more than two of the Command Crew off the ship for just a walk-about, and M'Rael as Science Officer should go, so that means only one of you get's to go as well."

Vaire turns her head slightly so that they're looking at each other, Kia really wants to go down there, but, "You should go, grá, M'Rael can handle the bio-scans, your knowledge of physics is what's needed to put a time on it."

She gets a kiss for that and, "I'll make sure you get all the recordings soon as possible and what samples we can dig up. Perhaps there's enough genetic material left to do a profile and you can give us an idea of what the life there looked like."

A return kiss, "Searching for that and sequencing it up would keep me busy enough that I wouldn't mind not going down." Then they both look back at me.

"So it's settled then," I say, "and since we all need some more sleep if we're going to be at our best…" They both nod, settling back in, Kia snuggled up to Vaire's back and me nose-to-nose with my blue-skinned wife as we drift back off.

1100 hours, Vaire, M'Rael, two science techs, an engineer and one security person have been on the surface for two hours. Kia com'ed me an hour ago with excitement. There was some genetic material in the samples they'd sent up, seems there had indeed been an oceanic ecosystem at some point, and she was busy teasing strands of the DNA analog out for sequencing.

I turn con over to Frazier and wander down to the Med-lab for a bit. Kia is still involved in trying to find a semi-intact strand to work with so I grab lunch and head back to the bridge. A couple hours later there's a signal from the surface.

"Keiran, we've come across a cave that is not natural. The entrance has a support structure that is definitely artificial in construction." I can tell from her voice that Vaire is getting excited; a possible intelligent species.

"Does it appear safe to go in?"

"The surrounding rock is very old, but as far as we can see with our suit-lights, there are other supports further in. At present I believe that the hazard is low. There is one issue, however."

"That would be….."

"The rock is laced with manentite, which will prevent communications and transporter lock-on." She knows procedure on this, so I don't have to remind her, "Therefore, only M'Rael and Technician Zarkon along with Shraz will enter. I've already had com-relays sent down and they'll place them at intervals as they proceed."

I nod to myself, the relays still won't let us transport them out if they get in trouble, but will allow communications not only with the rest of the landing party, but the ship itself. "Very well, Vaire, have them go in but with caution. No telling how old that tunnel system is and it could be unstable."

"Understood, we'll keep you apprised of anything unusual." She signs off and I sit back to look over the report that planetology has just updated. Background radiation in the mineral samples indicates that the planet had indeed been hit with a CME sometime in the .9 to 1.2 million year range. So if there had been any life, it was a million years ago that it got wiped out. I notice that Vaire has already accessed it so she knows that the tunnels that the other three are going into are at least that old. She'll be sure they take precautions.

Its 1500 now, normally I'd be turning command over to Shran, but with her on the surface, Sord and I will be working a split shift. I'm still reviewing reports. Cosmology has indicated that the star is a variable, even more so than Sol. CME's would be a fairly regular occurrence, though given the number of possible trajectories there could have been enough time for not only life, but intelligent life to arise on the planet.

Luck of the draw really, life arises, gets a foothold, maybe a civilization develops, but not in time to find the technology that could have saved them either through shielding or having off-planet colonies.

Then there's a hand on my shoulder and I turn to see Kia there, a look of resignation in her eyes. "There wasn't enough intact material to get a decent strand, so unless they find something in those tunnels, the makeup of the former inhabitants will remain a mystery."

I nod and pat her hand with mine, "Given that it's been around a million years since anything lived there, the odds are slim."

She nods and lifts my hand to give it a kiss, "I'm going to back to the lab. A new paper came in from the Vulcan Science Academy and I want to see if there's anything in it that will help with my little project." She gives me a kiss then heads back to deck six.

For twenty years she's worked in her spare time on the Human-Andorian problem, the reason Vaire and I broke up the first time. While Human/Vulcan hybrids were now becoming less rare, the differences between Humans and Andorians were still proving to be a problem. Kia and I had a daughter, she was now in the Academy going through Engineering school, but my first wife wanted Vaire and I to have a child as much as we did, and devoted quite a bit of her spare time to helping crack the code that would let us do that.

I smiled at the thought. Brenna called them both 'mother', and she loved Vaire as much as she loved Kia. My second wife returned that affection with fierce devotion, Brenna was her kistarm, her 'heart-daughter' and our daughter was as much Andorian as she was Human. I still remember the day five years ago when she came of age, and stood before the Clan-Mother, face calm and not a flinch as her arm was decorated with the iridescent green band that proclaimed her as Shran.

I tuck that line of thought lovingly into its nest and return to the reports filtering in from the various science labs. At 1800 Vaire reports that M'Rael and Zarkon have found that the tunnel system dives deeper and becomes fairly extensive, I order them to beam back up and my Exec and Science officer begin to put together a plan to explore it. Fifteen crew-members in teams of three; a science officer or tech, an engineer and a security person in each team will beam down tomorrow to begin mapping and exploring it. There will also be a shelter with a base team of four at the entrance as well as a couple other teams spiraling out from there to see if there are any surface remains.

I make a change to the duty schedule; Zan will take center seat for second shift and I let her know that; she almost sounds happy at the thought, well at least as happy as an Efrosian ever sounds. With M'Rael on the surface coordinating the teams from outside the caverns, Vaire will man the Science Station during first shift. At 1900, Vaire and I collect Kia from the lab and head back to our quarters for a late dinner and some snuggling before sleep.

The next few days are busy for Sciences, not so much for the rest of the ship, though I notice that Stron is doing some maintenance work on the Warp Drive, trying to eek out a few more percentage points of speed I guess. The tunnel system on the planet is even more extensive than first thought, but I nix the idea of sending more teams down. We've already got almost ten percent of the crew on the surface, and for an unexplored planet, that's my personal limit.

On the fourth day after beginning their spelunking, Team Four finds what appears to be a small town. Nooks in the cavern walls have been hand hewn, some smaller and some fairly spacious. They return to the surface with plates cast from manentite that have what appear to be some form of writing on them. The mineral's structure prevents transport, so I send a shuttle down to retrieve them and I leave a note for Zan about the find. She'll probably spend her off-duty hours trying to tease a translation out of them.

A couple hours later we find life, Team Two comes across a small pool of water that still has living bacteria or the equivalent in it. They do extensive scans then transmit the data collected to the Med-Lab. Kia calls up a little later with the news that the base DNA structure is similar to that back in the core, close to bacteria found on humanoid worlds such as Earth, Vulcan and Andoria.

The following morning, there's a message from Zan in my IRRD. There's no reference, either in pictograph or any other method that could give her a start in translating the apparent writing. The plates could be anything from a history text to a shopping list, no way to know currently. She's got them scanned into a secure database and is running algorithms on the whole collection now, but unknown whether the attempt will be successful.

The surface teams continue to comb through the tunnels, another small town is found and more plates sent up in a shuttle. More samples of bacteria, these living on the walls of a different cavern are scanned and Kia starts building a map of the remaining ecosystem.


	2. Chapter 2

The eighth day after we started our investigations, Team Five makes the breakthrough. A larger town, filling a cavern almost a hundred meters across and a score high contains not only more plates, these with pictographs, but fossilized bones as well. I head to the lab about the time the stasis container with the bones arrives and Kia is almost giggling in glee. After making sure the containment room is secure, she uses remotes to shut off the stasis field then pulls one bone out and deftly slices it open with a laser-scalpel then begins scanning the core.

A gasp, and she's teasing out a sample and putting it into the genetic sequencer. "Be a few hours for the computer to process it, grá," she tells me, her face alight with the knowledge that we will be able to find out what one of the higher forms of life from this planet looked like. Might just be the equivalent of a pet, but on the other hand, it might be one of the builders of the underground cities.

"A million years, and there's still material there?" I ask.

She nods, smiling widely, "I don't know if it's the density of the bone, it's very solid in structure, or the manentite that's part of the fossilization. But while it's long dead, there are strands of DNA analog that are mostly intact. The computer, hopefully, can interpolate the various pieces and perhaps reconstruct an entire strand."

"We'll be able to see what it looked like in life?"

"A close approximation, but yes. We can use the algorithms developed for genetic cross-matching to build up a crude image of whatever this bone belonged to." She sighs happily, leans in with an arm around me and looks at the bone still lying on the table in the containment area. "To think that something a million years dead will, in a way, come back to life."

"A grand thing indeed," and I think to myself 'This is what Starfleet is all about, not guarding sectors against an invasion that might not come but exploring and gaining new knowledge.'

We go and have lunch in the Pub and then she heads back to the lab while I return to the bridge and review updates from Headquarters, including a reply from them that they've dispatched an _Oberth_ with a full science team to thoroughly explore the planet. We've been given two more days here, then we're to continue our mapping and main exploration.

Just before 1500, second shift starts arriving and I've just handed off con to Zan when Kia comes onto the bridge beaming, "Want to see what the dominant life form on the planet looked like?"

The entirety of first shift stops and waits while second shift is almost squirming in their seats. Kia has the current science officer bring up a file and on the main screen is the first image of the builders of the underground towns.

Bi-pedal, a little less than two meters in height, bulky with no hair. I look at the image more closely then blink, "Couldn't determine gender?"

Kia huffs, "As far as the computer can tell, they didn't have one."

Chief Lathem, the second shift bridge engineer, speaks up, "Could they be like my people?" Sie's from Kelestan, human looking, but everyone there is inter-sexed, both genders in one body. They're fully capable of being both 'father' and 'mother'; though not with themselves.

Kia shakes her head, "No, Chief. Your N1 and N2 chromosomes are in balance so that your people express both genders at once. Other races that also have both sides of the chromosome pair, only express the male side of that, where as the females, like myself, double up one side, so we don't even have the other half of the pair in our DNA. These people didn't seem to have the gender-specific parts in their genetic makeup, so they expressed neither."

"Then how could they reproduce?" Vaire asks. "Budding, some form of natural cloning, or something even more radical."

"I don't know if this was even representative of the race as a whole, could be a genetic accident. We'll need more samples if we hope to solve it." Kia's thinking of weeks here trying to unravel the puzzle.

"Unfortunately, we don't have much time," I put out and she looks at me. "Orders came in, they're sending the _Armstrong_ with a full team, and we're to continue on into the sector within two days."

She huffs at that, "It's our find here, Keiran. Can't you ask for more time to let us try and solve this little puzzle?"

"Unfortunately, grá, our orders were non-discretionary. 'Continue survey mission within forty-eight hours of receipt of this transmission.'" I glance at the chrono, "As of right now, we need to get underway in just under forty-five hours to be in compliance."

"Maorlathaigh damanta," she mutters and I chuckle. (Damned bureaucrats)

"I agree totally, but we still answer to them."

A sigh, then, "I hope the teams can come up with something before then, otherwise someone else will make that breakthrough."

"You got the start on it, so your name will be at the top, grá."

"Listen to Keiran, vresh," Vaire puts in, "this was just the first system in the sector, and there are fifty more systems to look at."

Kia seems a little mollified at that, "I guess we can't be the ones on top of everything."

"And if you tried, you'd never get anything else done," I say to her purse-lipped grin.

"I suppose you're right, it still seems a shame that we can't stay and finish the job though," she says, looking wistfully at the image on the screen.

We head back to our quarters for dinner and some music, then it's to bed as both my wives seem intent on getting as much as possible done in the next couple days.

I wake to an alarm blaring again, though I have to extract myself from between Kia and Vaire to com the bridge, "O'Connor here, now what's up, Sord?" I ask, still half asleep.

"Part of the tunnel system has collapsed, Captain. Team Four was investigating a new branch they'd found and are trapped either underneath or somewhere on the other side of the rubble."

I'm instantly awake, and Vaire is already out of bed and starts handing me pieces of clothing, "Status on the team?" I ask

"Unknown, the manentite is preventing communications or a sensor lock on the team. Engineer Stron is already preparing to beam down with a crew to examine the cave in."

I'm almost done dressing as Vaire continues to hand me items, "Ship to go to condition three," I notice Kia is also up and almost dressed herself, "Dr O'Connor will prepare sick-bay, I'll be on the bridge in three minutes." I was almost completely dressed by this time and Vaire was starting to don her uniform.

"Acknowledged, Sord out." The com clicks off and I'm already headed for the door, shrugging into my duty-tunic, Kia right behind me, also putting her tunic on. Vaire calls after us to let me know that she'll be on the bridge soon just as the Yellow Alert blare starts coming from all coms aboard.

When I exit the lift I immediately start passing orders, "Sord, boost the gain on the targeting scanners, maybe we can punch through the manenite interference with them," he nods and heads to tactical. "Ensign T'Vral, put us in forced, geo-synch orbit; I want us above the ground base at all times," she nods and begins altering the ships orbital path.

I look over at B'Shal; I can tell he's nervous, "Lt M'Rael is asking to talk to you, sir."

"Good, I want to talk to her as well." I hear the door swish and know that Vaire is here, but my concentration is on the com-link I just activated on my chair. "M'Rael, what the hell was a team doing in the tunnels at night?" I'm a bit peeved; there were orders in place to prevent things like this from catching us unaware.

"They did so against procedure and my orders, sir. Several of the teams wanted to split-shift; try to find more samples, but I told them that no one was to go in the tunnels after 2100 or before 0700."

"Do you know what caused the cave-in?"

"Ground sensors recorded a magnitude 2.4 quake approximately fifteen minutes ago. When we were woken by the alert, we discovered a team missing. An IRRD message was in my unit sir, marked as low-priority which is why my IRRD didn't wake me. Engineer Parker and PO Karshtam went into the tunnels for a quick search and that's when we found out about the collapse in a side tunnel, sir."

"How long ago was that message sent?"

"Time record indicates 0015, sir, so just under two hours."

I glance at the chrono and its just 0200; I've had barely four hours sleep. "Well, if they survive this little adventure, they'll almost wish they hadn't. Has the Chief arrived?"

A short pause, "PO Shraz informs me that Mr Stron and his team just entered the tunnels, sir; PO Vrash is with them."

"At least someone obeys orders around here," I mutter then, "Very well, keep the Exec in the loop."

"Aye sir, surface base out."

I look back at Vaire and she's not looking happy. Trying to get more info is a good thing, except when you purposely disobey orders. "While their timing could have been better, you can't fault them for wanting to get as much as possible done," she says.

"Exuberance be damned, Aine, they disobeyed orders of the senior officer on the ground and if they live, I'm going to do my best to make them regret it." She nods, one thing to show a little initiative, quite another to flaunt the rules.

I thumb a switch, "Captain's Log supplemental. Contrary to orders, one team returned to the tunnels for some late night exploration. While they were in there, a minor quake has caused a collapse in the tunnel they were in. Communications attempts with the team were unsuccessful leading to the conclusion that the team is trapped either under or behind the rubble. Ship is at Yellow Alert, in forced geo-sync orbit and Commander Sord is attempting to use targeting scanners to penetrate the manentite to locate the team. Engineer Stron is already on site with an enginerring-team to assess rescue methods."

I thumb off the recorder and look back at my Exec, she has her head tipped, listening to her ear-bug, "More information from the surface, Keiran. Seems they at least loaded in new storage vacuoles, so they had approximately twelve hours of air available to them."

"Won't help if they were caught under that mess, but it does give us more time if they did survive that. Least they followed that bit of procedure." She nods and goes back to coordinating the various departments.

I'm reviewing options that we have, anything from a phaser bore to drill a hole straight down and allow communications and transporter lock-on, to using the ship's main phaser battery to cut the top right off the mountain they're under when Kia comes out of the lift, hypo-spray in hand. "Just a little something to keep you and Vaire alert, grá," stimulant then, we'll pay for it later, but my first wife knows that neither of us will sleep till the missing crew is aboard, alive or dead.

She hits me up, a quick kiss then the same for Aine, and she heads back to sick-bay. Vaire just looks at me and shakes her head ruefully and continues to receive updates from the surface.

It's about an hour later when Stron finally gets back to me, "Captain, to bore through the original tunnel and place supports will take approximately nine point two hours."

"Your estimate is based on what factors, chief."

"We used a technique developed back on Earth, sounding readings. Impacts on the rocks at the close end reverberated through the blocked tunnel and our tricorders could measure the time differential to give us a distance of one hundred twenty meters, sir. While a phaser-bore could cut through that in a very short time, we need to proceed cautiously for two reasons. First, bracing must be installed at very close intervals and second is that someone might be trapped under the rubble, and running the bore at full intensity would defeat the purpose of trying to rescue them."

Right, the phaser-bore vaporized rock, turning the compounds into disassociated atoms. What it would do to even a suited crewmember didn't bear thinking about for too long. "Understood Chief, be aware that they have less than nine hours of breathable air remaining in their vacuoles, so time is of the essence."

"Acknowledged, Captain, I shall endeavor to reduce that time without sacrificing safety for either my people or those trapped."

He signs off and I look over to my tactical officer, "Any progress on the scanners, Mr Sord?"

He looks back at me and shakes his scaled head, "Nothing, sir; the scanners are unable to penetrate the manentite. It's a shame that it can't be used in ship's hulls to provide a sensor screen, but all alloy attempts have failed due to the inherent pentagonal crystalline structure."

"I know. Keep at it, and try to think up other ideas as well." He nods, baring his double row of shark-like teeth, then turns back to his console.

I review any progress being made, Stron thinks he can cut perhaps a half hour off his original estimate, but that's still a bit too long. Sord is still trying to fine-tune the targeting scanners while Vaire works on the main sensors and Zan, who arrived a little bit after I did, tries everything she can to punch a com-signal through.

I'm looking through reports and still trying to come up with a miracle when the turbo-lift door opens and I hear a rumbling. Turning, I see Ensign Vract coming towards me, "My pardon Captain, but I request to be beamed down, sir."

"Ensign, you were one of the first people I thought of, but after reviewing medical information I declined to recruit you. Do you know what menantite can do to your system?" Vract's our lone Horta, his people EAT rock, he could put a tunnel right to the trapped crew in an hour or less, the one problem being...

"Sir, I know the risk. While I might not be able to reject all the menantite, I still believe I can get a tunnel to them in short order. I looked over Commander Stron's status and he can't reach them before their air runs out."

Menantite is a systemic poison to Horta's, kind of like arsenic is to humans. If he takes in too much, it could kill him. Luckily, as he says, they're somewhat discriminatory in what they absorb, he can refuse to absorb most of it, leave a trail of menantite slurry in his wake, but some will get into his body.

The lift door opens again and Kia comes out and goes right to Vract. Kneeling next to him, she puts a hand on one of his sensory nodes, "Vract, I know why you're up here and I have to say no. I've read the assay reports, the level of menantite in the rock down there is too high and with the length of the tunnel you'd have to dig, there's a good chance you'd take in a fatal dose."

"Ma'am, you're correct that I could die, but if I don't do this, Torres WILL die." Belinda Torres is the engineer of the trapped team, seems the two of them have struck up a friendship. "I know I can reach them in time, and if I don't do this, I could never face my brood-mates again."

One thing that I remembered was that Horta's were very protective of their own. His 'mother' had sabotaged mining equipment, killed those she knew were intelligent because she was protecting her 'children' and didn't have any way to communicate that to the miners. Vract may be the only one of his people on _Repulse_, but it seems he'd adopted Torres as family.

Kia's still trying to reason with him, "Oh you crazy rock-eater, you're willing to risk dying to find people who might be dead already if they were in the tunnel section that collapsed?"

"Until we get to them, ma'am, we don't know that, and if we don't try, they will die."

She seems almost ready to invoke medical over-ride but I cut her off, "He's right, grá." A look full of tears to me and I smile sadly, "Stron can't reach them in time if they are still alive, Vract here can; and you or I would do no less for those we call family."

She looks back down at him, "You just take care and get your pancake self back up here and we'll see what we can do to clear you out, you hear me, Ensign?"

His rumble is softer, "Yes, ma'am," and she kisses her hand and pats a sensory nodule with it. Then after a look to me, heads back to sick-bay to prepare it for a poisoned Horta.

I look back at Aine, from the set of her antenna, she's about as worried as Kia is, but it doesn't touch her face. "Vaire," she looks at me, "do we have any of the old life-support belts in stores?"

Now her antenna go low, she knows why I'm asking, "You are not going down there."


	3. Chapter 3

I stare right back at her, "In this case, I am. I have three trapped crewmembers and another one who's going to risk his life to get them out, I WILL be there."

She huffs, realizing that it's hopeless to argue, then checks supply, "We have three aboard, marked for 'unusual circumstance use' only."

"I think this qualifies," I look down at my young engineer. He was too, not all the eggs on Janus IV hatched together, some waited upwards of ten years, he was one of the last to hatch. "I'm using that because I'm going to be right behind you the entire way, Mr. Vract, and it'll protect me from anything you might accidentally spray my way." He rumbles a little, a Horta chuckle. I look back at Vaire, "Have the quartermaster break one out and bring it to Transporter One, you're in command till we get back…WITH the rest of our crew."

She nods to me and Vract and I head for the lift as Vaire remains at Science, she can command from there as well as the center-seat, and she may come up with something else too.

When I and my young officer reach the Transporter, Chief Thompson is already there, "Belt is charged full, Captain, just remember; three hours of life support is all its rated, so be sure you're in the shelter down there or back aboard before it shuts off."

"Got it, Chief," then I'm putting it on as Vract climbs onto the platform. I join him, activate the belt and a soft-green glow encompasses my body. I look at Krannick, my number two transport officer, "Put us right outside the tunnel entrance, Lieutenant." He makes some adjustments then nods, "Energize."

My vision blurs, then clears again and we're looking down the tunnel to see Stron and his party coming out. "Commander Shran informed me of your plan, Captain." He looks down at Vract, "Take your time and do the job I know you are capable of, Ensign, and be sure to return. Your work has been very satisfactory and to find a replacement shield technician of your ability would strain the resources of the crew."

Vract rumbles and shifts a bit, clearly embarrassed by the praise just heaped on him. Which for a Vulcan was exactly what it had been. Then he enters the tunnel and I'm only a couple meters behind him.

We reach where Stron and his crew had been using the phaser-bore. The surface is pitted and there's a fine dusting of menantite on the floor, it's also fairly resistant to phaser-fire. The cleared section was about twelve meters deep and Vract goes into it, sets himself then starts his eating jets. It was almost like an old-fashioned sprinkler, as jets of highly corrosive acid eat away at the rock, turning it into slurry that he sucks into his vacuoles. Most would be processed into more acid through a chemical reaction in his body; some would become energy for him through a similar process. He leaves a thin stream behind him that glitters slightly, the menantite slurry that he's rejecting. He's still going to absorb some, can't be helped.

The menantite would build up in his circulatory system. The pentagonal crystals binding to cells in his body, mainly his nervous system. It would block transmission of not only conscious control but autonomic functions as well. Fatal menantite poisoning of a Horta meant complete shutdown of his higher functions, turning him into what they use to call a vegetable. If it didn't shut everything down completely and kill him.

Vract doesn't even slow down, in six minutes he's doubled the length of the rescue tunnel. Stron's phaser-bore set to its lowest power level had taken an hour to get the same distance.

I'm following a bit behind, the less the belt has to protect me against, the longer its storage cell would last. I'm crouched, as his tunnel is only a meter and a half high and I'm taller than that, but it's wide enough that I'm not entirely cramped.

About fifty meters in, he makes a right turn, "Problem, Ensign?" I ask through my wrist-com.

He has his voder set to the same com-frequency, "It wasn't straight, sir, I'm following the looser rock that shows where the original tunnel was."

Natural tunnelers, they could follow a thin thread of a particular mineral, or in this case, the rubble of a tunnel collapse. One thing Spock had noted on Janus, with a Horta doing the tunneling, you didn't have to worry about support bracing as the acid fused the rock that it didn't dissolve, leaving a smooth, strong passageway.

"How are you holding up?"

"It's very...disorienting, sir."

"Sounds like me after a binge night of drinking everything under the sun. Too bad we can't feed you something that'd break down the menantite and let it just flow out."

"There are things than can do that, sir," he hadn't stopped spraying and eating through this, didn't use his mouth to talk. "Unfortunately, as the Doctor would say, 'the cure is worse than the disease'."

"Well, do your best, Mr Vract. If we have to, we can get Stron and his little toy back in here to finish the job."

"Aye, sir," and he keeps going, dissolving and eating through the rubble blocking our way.

Fifty-five minutes after he'd started, he breaks clear into a cavern and there's excited shouts over the com.

Ensign Torres, the one Vract had mentioned earlier, is the first, "Vract, you stupid pile of rubble, you know what the menantite is going to do to you?" I guess she knows as she comes over and puts a gloved-hand on one of his sensory nodules, "you crazy fool."

"Nice to see you as well, Belinda," he rumbles, but it's hoarse, grating, stuttering…he's in trouble.

I'd brought a couple com-relays and dropped them in appropriate spots, "O'Connor to M'Rael, we're through and they're alive, get a grav-sled to the surface and in here now."

"Grav-sled is already here, sir, Mr Stron had it sent down as soon as he reached the shelter, and we're moving now."

I look at the other two in the cavern, Ensign Karesh of biology and Crewman 2nd Zarn, one of Chief Mrolf's security people. They're looking everywhere but me, Torres doesn't care that I'm here, she's trying to comfort her friend. I'll dress them all down later. "Once we have Mr Vract on the sled, everyone out, pronto…got it?"

"Aye Captain," comes from all three. Five minutes later Stron and M'Rael arrive, towing a grav-sled behind them. We all chip in to lift Vract onto it as he masses the better part of three-hundred kilos. Then with four of us in front and the other two pushing from behind, we tow him out of the tunnel.

Once outside, I tap my com, "O'Connor to Repulse, beam Mr Vract directly to sick-bay, energize when ready." They acknowledge and he disappears in a sparkle. Torres looks like she wants to follow, but a glare from me puts her down again. "Everyone…shelter…now."

We file through the airlock into the quick-set shelter that had been put up to support the exploration crew. They'd slept and ate in there, getting resupplied by transporter daily. Stron, M'Rael, Vrash and our three juniors are the only one's inside when I step through the inner-hatch. They've all doffed their e-suits and I turn off my belt.

"I sent the rest to the ship, Captain," Stron says. "Given the circumstances I would surmise that our time here is done."

It was a bold step, pre-guessing his captain, but the intuition that his record had showed me was still working good. "Exactly right, Chief. Soon as we're done here, have a crew tear this thing down and get it back to the ship." He nods and I turn to the three intrepid explorers. "What the bleeding hell did you three think you were doing?"

They all look like kicked puppies, Karesh is the first one to speak up, "With the deadline approaching, sir, I thought we could get some more searching done, maybe find more bones for genetic typing."

I glare at him, "So you decided that not only the orders of a superior but also the procedures laid down were inconvenient and purposely ignored both."

"Well, no sir….."

"Then what, Ensign. I can't believe it was stupidity, we usually weed out the stupid one's at the Academy." He turns bright red and wisely shuts up. I look at Torres, "And you, engineer, what kind of bribe got you to forgo common sense?"

I can see that she's scared I'll toss her out of Starfleet for this, and I could too. Disobeying the orders of a superior officer is a court-martial offense. But she's firm in her resolve, "No bribe sir, I agreed with Thorm that we might be able to find something to help solve the mystery."

"Oh, an engineer interested in biological reproduction, is it?" she blushes a little at that, "When did you switch tracks?"

"Mysteries are meant to be solved, sir, and from what I've heard, this is a doozy."

"Well, as you've now found out, there's a reason for procedures and following orders, Ensign." She doesn't argue after that so I turn my heat on PO Zarn. Him I wouldn't even need a court-martial, I could just kick him out now and put him in the brig for the next year. "So how did you get involved, Zarn?"

"I woke up to them getting ready and followed my orders, sir. No personnel to go in the tunnels without security escort."

Oh he's good, "Did it ever occur to you to let them know that by going in at that time, THEY were disobeying orders?"

"Sir, they're officers." I sigh in resignation, he's fresh from security training and since they don't use officers in security anymore, all he's had is six months of Starfleet Orientation and the one year of specialized training he needed to do his job. One thing they pounded into the enlisted personnel was 'Officers are always to be obeyed'.

"Well, crewman, in some cases the enlisted person has to remind said vapor-headed officers," Karesh and Torres both look embarrassed at that, "that what they're doing goes against what higher officers have put in place. So at such times, you DO need to speak up; understood?"

He nods, "Yes sir, understood sir."

I look back at my chiefs of Engineering and Science, "So what do we do with these three miscreants?"

Stron I think is taking the 'fear me' route as he says, "Regulations are clear, court-martial is indicated for any disobedience that results in either the loss of life or the potential for that to happen. As Mr Vract did endanger his life, and might still lose it, performing this rescue, there can be no doubt."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the three almost squirm then I look at M'Rael. She looks them over like they were a tasty morsel or something then says, "While in principle I agree with Commander Stron, they are still relatively new to the ship. I suppose some leniency could occur."

"Very well, Lt M'Rael. While I'll keep their records clean," and I stare at the three and they cringe, "this time. Some sort of punishment must be dealt out. Mr Zarn," he looks up at me, "to remind you that sometime a cooler head must express itself even when it thinks it shouldn't; your duty shift for the next two weeks will be on brig-detail."

He looks resigned. Since we have no one in the brig at the moment, it pretty much means staring at empty cubes and doing checks on the force-barriers to make sure they work. Very boring as the main computer access is, by necessity, restricted so he can't even really entertain himself there.

I look at Torres, "Mr Stron, do you have a suitable detail for your engineer?"

"Two weeks as the anti-matter and plasma distribution coordinator, with manual checks of both occurring twice a shift." Torres closes her eyes and groans. Oh he's being mean, a manual check means that Torres actually has to go into the anti-matter chamber. I'd been in there once and the magnetic field makes it seem like ants were crawling all over your body.

Karesh is the last and M'Rael doesn't even need prompting, "Two weeks in the Botany Lab, and no bridge detail." She knew her people, the Botany Lab was almost as boring as the brig right now, and since she'd been cycling all her officers through the bridge station, he'd miss four chances to be seen by the 'big people'.

I look over our three 'truants', "As an additional punishment, you're all restricted from the Pub for the next week." They all look like I've taken away their favorite toy; I knew all three spent quite a bit of off-duty time in there.

Two look absolutely dejected; Torres seems to be made of sterner stuff, "One request, sir?" I glare at her and she looks me right in the eye, "Request permission to visit Sick-Bay daily, sir, until Vract is out."

"So long as Doctor O'Connor clears it, then yes." I look back at Stron, "Get that crew down here and take this place apart, no more explorations, let _Armstrong_'s crew handle it, and I'll warn them about the potential cave-ins as well." He nods and I activate my com, "O'Connor to _Repulse_, six to beam up, energize when ready." A few seconds later and we're on the pads and I turn my belt over to Chief Thompson and head for Sick-Bay, Torres right behind me.

When we arrive, Kia and Travis are already in the containment area, medical steri-fields enveloping both. Vract is on a platform with the two med officers setting up something to try and flush the menantite from his system. They'll run his circulation fluid through a filter system that will clean the mineral from what he uses for blood, but the crystals already latched onto his nervous system are another matter.

Torres leans on the table in front of the observation window, nose almost pressed to the transparent aluminum and I see tears in her eyes. Inside I soften, seems the two of them have struck up quite a friendship. I see it as another part of a learning experience though, "Just remember this the next time you think you know better than those who've been out here a while, Ms Torres."

She looks at me, the pain evident in her tear-filled eyes, "Yes sir, I will." She looks back at Vract as the two doctors finish their connections and 'blood' starts flowing through the filter system, "Is he going to be alright?"

"I don't know, he took a lot of that in, I know that Kia and Dr Travis will do everything they can. But it all depends on how many of the crystals have already bonded and if they can remove those somehow."

Kia comes out of the containment room and comes over to us, "It's going to be touch and go, and I'm still not sure we got things going in time. While you were planet-side, however, I did do some research and there's a couple things I can try to displace the crystals that have already latched on to his brain and other areas."

"Understood, grá. Ms Torres here would like to visit him daily, if possible."

"That can be arranged, I don't know when he'll regain consciousness, and you'll have to be in steri-field, mainly to protect you. He's squirting acid at random intervals, so very dangerous to be near him right now without one."

Torres nods at that. "Could I go in now?" she almost pleads.

Kia looks at her, then nods, "Steri-field belts are just outside the door to the room, just don't dislodge any of the connections." Torres nods again and heads in, going up to the platform and putting a hand on one of Vracts sensory nodules, almost stroking it in a way.

I look at my wife and she's got a soft smile on her face as she watches not Torres, but Travis. I look at her number two and he's watching Torres. He'd made progress in the last few weeks, but he was still a little reticent around certain species, Hortas being one. He'd done his job perfectly in helping Kia in there just now, but I could tell that during it he'd been uncomfortable.

Now he was watching Torres, an human, sitting with that 'pan-pizza', as The Captain called them, almost petting him in a way, with tears flowing freely. Seeing people interact with others in the Pub or Rec-Deck was one thing, seeing a Human obviously torn up at the thought of someone she called a friend, no matter what that friend looked like, here in Sick-Bay fighting for his life, was having an impression on him.

I give Kia a kiss then head back to the bridge to take over and enter my log of this little adventure.


End file.
